UMBC

Nicole Clark tallied her second assist of the season against George Mason.

BALTIMORE—The UMBC women’s soccer team (1-5-1) scored twice in the first stanza but allowed four second-half goals and fell to George Mason (4-2-1) by a score of 4-3 Wednesday afternoon at UMBC Soccer Stadium.

The Retrievers led 2-0 at halftime despite being outshot, 10-5. UMBC got on the board in the 21st minute, when freshman midfielder Nicole Clark (Ellicott City, Md./Howard) received a goal kick at midfield along the right sideline. Clark stumbled past a Patriot defender but got up and crossed it into the middle of the field to freshman forward and reigning America East Rookie of the Week Amy Savage (Ottawa, Ontario/Sir Wilfrid Laurier), who made one move to her right and shot the ball toward the lower-left corner. Mason goalie Alex Bodenschatz got a hand on the ball but could not keep it from bouncing just inside the left post for the 1-0 UMBC lead.

With just over three minutes left in the first half, freshman midfielder Stephanie Smith (Severna Park, Md./Archbishop Spalding) blasted a high arching shot from 28 yards out that found the top left corner of the net to give the Retrievers a 2-0 halftime lead. It was the first goal of Smith’s career.

But a rejuvenated George Mason squad tallied three straight goals in the first 13 minutes of the second period. Just 1:10 into the half, the Patriots used a series of passes from forwards Tiana Kallenberger and Janice Johnson to forward Zoe Doherty, who was wide open just inside the box and put the ball into the bottom left corner to cut UMBC’s lead in half.

Then in the 52nd minute, Johnson crossed the ball to Doherty, but a Retriever defender tipped the pass into her own goal to tie the game. The Patriots took their first lead of the game at 59:26 when UMBC freshman goalie Lauren Kadet (Oakville, Ontario/Sir Thomas Aquinas) made a diving stop of an Omolyn Davis shot but was injured on the play, and the rebound dribbled along the goal line, where an unmarked Kallenberger tapped it just inside the post and into an empty net.

Just one minute later, the Patriots committed a foul in the box to give UMBC a penalty kick, which sophomore forward Rachel McKee (Ellicott City, Md./Mount Hebron) sent into the lower-right corner of the net to knot the score at 3-3.

But in the 67th minute, the Patriots regained the lead when Doherty took a pass from Davis and sent it toward the net. Kadet dove to her left, but a UMBC defender deflected the shot into the bottom right corner.

Kadet made nine saves between the pipes, while Bodenschatz stopped three Retriever shots. George Mason outshot UMBC, 20-9, and took the game’s only two corner kicks. Savage was named the America East Player of the Game for the second straight match.

The Retrievers return to action on Sunday, Sept. 19, when they begin a three-game road trip at American.